Lemon-Honey Tart with Salted Shortbread Crust

As a rule, every dough you make should contain salt—it complements the sweetness in your filling—and this buttery shortbread is no exception. Using salt in the crust and the filling helps create balance among the sweet, the bitter (from the lemon peel), and the acidic notes (from the fresh lemon juice).

Preparation

For crust:

Coat springform pan with nonstick spray. Whisk flour, cornstarch, and salt in a small bowl; set aside. Place butter and powdered sugar in a food processor. Pulse until mixture is smooth. Add dry ingredients to food processor and pulse until mixture resembles medium-size pebbles (dough will not come together completely). Transfer dough to prepared pan. Using your fingers, press dough evenly onto bottom and 1 1/2" up sides of pan. DO AHEAD: Crust can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.

For filling and assembly:

Using a mandoline, slice lemon into paper-thin rounds. Remove seeds. (If using a regular lemon, blanch slices in boiling water for 4 minutes, drain, and let cool before proceeding). Mix sugar, honey, and lemon zest in a medium bowl. Add lemon slices and toss to coat. Let sit until lemon is softened and sugar is dissolved, 30-45 minutes. DO AHEAD: Lemon slice mixture can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.

Place rack in upper third of oven; preheat to 325°F. Bake crust until center is firm to the touch and edges are beginning to turn golden brown, 30-35 minutes.

When crust is almost done baking, whisk eggs and egg yolks in a medium bowl to blend. Whisk flour, cornstarch, and salt in a small bowl; add to egg mixture and whisk to combine. Whisk in lemon juice. Add lemon slice mixture; mix gently to combine.

Reduce oven temperature to 300°F. Pour filling into hot crust. Bake until filling is set and slightly puffed around edges, 25-30 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack; let cool completely. Chill for at least 4 hours, then unmold. Serve cold. DO AHEAD: Tart can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and keep chilled.

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Reviews

I made this twice so I guess I liked it!!! First time in a 10” tarte pan and the second in six 4” tarte pans. I ‘mandolined’ one Meyer lemon for the bigger tarte and it wasn’t enough coverage. For the smaller tartes, I ‘mandolined’ two and that seemed to cover all of them nicely. Also, right before incorporating the lemon/sugar mixture with the egg mixture I separated the lemon rind from the sugar. After the mixture was poured into the shells I neatly placed the lemon rind overlapping. Time and temperatures were correct.

as a big fan of Cook's Illustrated / Amercia's Test Kitchen as my go-to for fool-proof recipes, I'm always skeptical about trying non-CI/ATK recipes out before trying them on guests. This recipe caused me to keep up my guard. I made this two weekends in a row for friends over for dinner. The first time the only thing I changed was swapping Agave for honey (sounded too much like cough drops, or a sore throat remedy). It DOES require longer baking time to set, and I found that the mandoline slices added to the body of the tart made for a stringy serving. Yesterday I made it again and added 1 1/2 Tbsp of zest , and maybe 1-2 Tbsp of added lemon juice- what would have been part of the sliced up Meyer lemon. I used honey this time and cut and served the tart very soon after taking it out of the refrigerator. It sliced beautifully. All 8 of us loved it. With these changes to the filling I will be making it again -- next year when the Meyer's come back in season!

This was an amazing tart! Like lemon meringue pie, but more tart and flavorful in a good way, less goopey and not the meringue on top, which I never appreciated anyway. And the crust is awesome. I used three small meyer lemons sliced instead of one (mine were about the size of my thumb and index finger placed together), and it seemed perfect. I served a little whipped cream on the side with a touch of orange flavoring in it, and it was delicious. Not necessary though as it was fine on its own. I also noticed that mine needed another 10-15 minutes in the oven.

Delicious. I used 3 small Meyer lemons, sliced, plus additional lemons for the juice. It's definitely important to slice them very thin, otherwise it is difficulty to cut through them when you cut the tart. Loved the crust. I ended up adding about 10mins extra to the cooking time. Will make again!

I am an experienced baker so this recipe was not difficult. That said, it wasn't worth my time or the expense of the Meyer lemons to achieve the disappointing results. There are much better tarts to be made!

Lemon intense, rich, and elegant - this is the best dessert I have ever made - I like to bake AND have a serious sweet tooth AND love citrus anything. My husband was nuts about it also.
I used Meyer lemons all the way and definitely recommend doing so. (In fact I prefer Meyer lemons in my kitchen.)
I did increase the cooking times for both the crust and the whole pie. The other tiny change I made was to add ice water (1 - 2 tablespoons ) to the dough in the food processor, it helped it blend better. The shortbread crust is delicious and would be good with a lot of things or just by itself as a cookie with fresh marmalade. Hummm...think I need to go make some marmalade...

Fantastic intensive lemon flavor. I made the sugar/lemon slice mixture 2 days before making the tart so the rinds softened well because my mandolines made a mash out of the slices and could not find Meyers lemons nor those with particularly thin skin. I used a thin bladed knife and sliced the lemon as thinly and evenly as I could. I made also the tart a day ahead of serving it. So this means I started 3 days ahead of serving. It tasted great even 4 days after baking.
I did leave it cook about 10 minutes longer than the recipe called for at 300 but I'm not sure I really needed to. I was careful to bake it in the top third of the oven and to have the filling ready to pour into the hot crust. The crust did not get soggy at all.
I wonder how this would work with (key) limes or blood oranges?

#1: The baking times are spot on. The people who review with increased baking times need to get a gauge for their oven. #2: I paid attention to the person who commented about the whole lemon slices affecting the presentation. As an option, I included the zest from 6 Meyer lemons into the honey mixture. Bravo! GREAT recipe. PS: I used a removable bottom tart pan & put the left over crust & filling in a small ramekin. Delightful.

I would agree that the time for cooking is insufficient to set the filling. I live at sea level. I increased the temp to 325 for an additional 10 minutes only. I, too, found the honey was difficult to incorporate. This could be helped by adding it to the lemon juice and not to the sugar and lemon zest. I think I was overly tough on the shortbread, pressing it in too hard into the pan; so be firm but not heavy handed. Delicious flavours overall!

I, too, found the cooking time for the filling to be way short. After 30 minutes at 300 degrees the filling was still very loose. I raised the temp to 325 as KRobinson from Colorado suggested. After another 25 minutes the filling had set. In the end this is a delicious dessert but I'm not sure I will repeat it.

I have made this recipe multiple times and it has always turned out great. It's a consistent crowd pleaser, and I prefer using regular lemons over meyer--although if you make this choice the blanching step is very necessary to make the lemon rinds edible in the tart. This is a great, fresh dessert to follow any heavy or creamy meal.

I made this for Easter this year; it was delicious! It is tart but so good with the shortbread. I was so happy the lemon curd set up well - I have made several lemon meringues with mixed results - this recipe was easy though time consuming - worth it! Lemon slices were beautiful yet pith inedible - perhaps you need to soak them longer - I would follow other review & leave the lemon slices out or just use lemon zest. All in all, I can't wait this again!

This recipe doesn't work too well. The lemon slices offer quite a presentation but as you slice through them it mawls the presence of the portion you serve. They probably are best to be omitted. The honey does not integrate well, and agave nectar may be a good substitute as a looser natural sweetener, but either way there is not much flavor imparted from that ingredient. The cook time may be a bit under-estimated, as well. I also suggest incorporating about 2 teaspoons of zest into the shortbread.

So, my follow up review. I don't think the shortbread need to be salty for this dessert to be wonderful. I'd make it again but opt for the normal amount of salt. I loved the lemon filling,and yes, VERY lemony and not for the faint hearted. Next time I'm going to make this as individual tarts with some Chantilly cream on the side.

I just pulled this out of the oven. It looks great, but it took twice as long in the oven as the recipe said which may be due to the high altitude I live at. Also, I upped the baking temp back to 325 from 300 because after 30 minutes it was still soupy. I think it is also worth mentioning that you should buy a BAG of the Meyer Lemons, I used up a whole one but am glad I bought a second bag just in case! Anyhow, I'll update my review after I try this dessert tonight!

This is a fantastic recipe. I've made it twice once using a mandolin and the other using a very very sharp knife to slice the lemon. Paper thin slices are the key to this recipe, and the mandolin (though much more efficient) just didn't work as well. Take the time to cut beautifully thin slices and you won't regret it as this is really a wonderful dessert.

Delicious and
pretty! The crust
and filling are a
perfect balance of
sweet, salty, and
tart. I would only
make them with meyer
lemons, although I'd
be interested to see
how this recipe
would taste with
limes or oranges...

Very tart, adult type of dessert. I would make again for the right guests. (i.e no children!) Agree with cook from Toronto that Meyer lemons are a must - so juicy and flavourful without being harsh at all, even with rind included(aren't we lucky to have PC! The ones at my store were perfect)

Superbly tart, but MUST be made with Meyer lemons to enjoy the full effect of the recipe - since they have a fuller, gentler taste.The sliced meyers are a toothsome surprise. If you are accustomed to a North American level of sweetness you will want to increase the sugar or honey.

I think this is a good base recipe--but think that it would be great with a couple tweaks. For me, including the rind made the lemon slices much to bitter. Next time, I will peel the lemon first and then thinly slice. Also, the tart itself is VERY tart. I believe the honey/sugar could be increase slightly. Lastly, I found the shortbread crust to be DELICIOUS.